He had me at “separate serving utensils”

I had the BEST brunch ever this morning. So freakin’ good it just had to be blogged about. And it wasn’t about the food, well, only partly …

Today I went along to the first ever Hamilton #Bloggersbrunch. The name pretty much states what it is – brunch with a group of bloggers. What an awesome bunch of people!

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was Kevin the waiter at Punnet. Who in my opinion is the BEST freakin’ waiter in the Waikato.

Kevin let me take a photo of him and even though I could tell he was totally weirded out by the idea of being photographed by a stranger, he still smiled and posed with the giant pepper grinder.

I’d decided in advance that I was only going to have a cup of tea because I wasn’t sure about food allergy safety, and to be honest my stomach has been really sore lately (no, I have no idea why), so I wasn’t keen on making it feel worse.

Everyone was busy ordering amazing sounding meals, and I was feeling hungry for bacon. I asked Kevin whether the bacon was gluten free and how it was prepared.

And that’s when it emerged that Kevin is the BEST waiter ever. Here’s why:

1. Knowledge

Kevin not only knew all about coeliac disease, he also knew about the FODMAPs diet, cross-contamination, and correct handling of allergy-free food (it turns out that Kevin’s fiance is a coeliac with FODMAPs issues). He told me about how the allergy-free food was prepared and alerted me to any risk factors.

2. He checked stuff

Kevin wasn’t sure if the bacon was gluten-free so he went and asked the chef. (Yup it was). I didn’t have to ask him to check, and he didn’t assume that it was safe.

3. He was nice about it

Kevin was nice. He didn’t make me feel like it was a big deal to have a million dietary requirements. He didn’t mind that all I wanted on my plate was bacon. He just provided amazing customer service.

These might seem like small things to many people, but they’re huge for food allergy folk. It’s waiters like Kevin who help keep us safe. The bacon was great by the way, but the service was outstanding. Thank you Kevin! And thank you Punnet!

I’ll be back for more noms soon (and I promise not to take anyone’s photo).